Obama As Panderer-in-Chief Presents a Grave Threat to the Wall of Separation

September 8, 2013

Introduction: The Great Disappointment

I would expect this
from Reagan, both Bushes and even Clinton, who could pander with the best of
them. If McCain/Palin or Romney/What’s His Name? had prevailed in 2008 or 2012
respectively, yes, of course, this position would have been no surprise. But,
how many Barack Obama enthusiasts, those with hope for a new era, those who
knocked on doors, contributed money and otherwise promoted his watershed
election would have expected Obama to back prayers at government meetings?

What a grievous
letdown.

It’s bad enough that
Obama continued and even expanded the ghastly faith-based office in the White
House that distributes tax monies to religious organizations. It’s awful that
he can’t conclude a speech to the American people without intoning a ritual,
“God bless you and God bless the United States of America.” That’s gross,
particularly in that we have no way of knowing if God ever does bless us. What
would happen if he/she/it did, even once? We have no idea - and nor does Obama.
For that matter, there is zero evidence that there is a god. It’s just weird
that a president of a modern country in 2013 talks like this. Sure, the
fundamentalists want god-talk in their politicians, but this is America. In
this land, with a secular Constitution, a significant (20%) segment of the
population would be grateful if he’d stop it.

Still, my greatest
disappointment with our president is that he has chosen to align with
Congressional Republicans and the Religious Right in an action that could tear
down what’s left of the wall separating religion from the business of
governing.

Background

In 2012, the town of
Greece, N.Y. was found to have violated the 1st Amendment's ban on an
"establishment of religion" by a federal appeals court. Specifically,
Greece’s practice of having Christian prayers at monthly town council meetings
was judged to be “an endorsement of … a Christian viewpoint." The town
appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which accepted the case.

At the present time,
case law handed down by the highest court has established these guidelines:

Governments must not
be seen to "endorse" religion.

Public property must
not be used to display the Ten Commandments, Nativity scenes or religious
statues.

Even the Family
Research Council (FRC), the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) and other
fundamentalist, Republican/Tea Party extremists were surprised by their new
ally—the Obama administration. Barry Lynn, long time leader of Americans United
for Separation of Church and State, termed the administration's position
“doubly disappointing" while observing that "a town council
meeting is not like a church service, and it shouldn't be treated like it
is." (Source: Sarah Jones, “Prayer Push: Clergy Demand Sectarian
Invocations Before Government Meetings Despite Legal Risks,” Americans United -
Wall of Separation, Aug 22, 2013.)

Official prayers
reminiscent of a church service in public schools have been unconstitutional
for decades, in part because judges have ruled that such rituals marginalize
non-Christians or non-believers. But, that fact matters little to Republican
politicians who know that Americans overwhelmingly support public references to
God. Furthermore, no less than 60 percent of voters favor the clearly
unconstitutional National Day of Prayer. This flagrant violation of the
Constitution, wherein religion is promoted by the state, came about because
religion-based interest groups persuaded the Congress half a century ago to
proclaim an annual day of prayer. This was seen as a way to give a one-finger
salute to godless Commies, with whom we were having a cold war.

Today, the same salute
by Christians goes to secularists who resist religion in the public square. At
last count, no fewer than 85 House and 34 Senate members, along with 23 state
attorneys general, are lined up with briefs supporting government
prayers.

As the Freedom from
Religion Foundation (FFRF) has noted, prayer in government is running amok. One
absurd situation involves a “prayer caravan” involving 29 public schools
organized by the Cullman County, Alabama school superintendent. What justification
does this public official offer for violating the separation standard? In his
own words, he does so because “the bible admonishes us to pray without
ceasing.” Lovely.

And why does the
Alabama governor support the superintendent’s prayer caravan? Because "I
personally believe that one of the problems we have in this country is taking
God out of, not only our lives, but out of government.”

Have there been
studies to determine if any god is in or out of any government, with or without
politicians praying? I have not seen such research. Wouldn’t it be interesting
to examine the methodology that might be created to explore such a presumed
relationship.

If the president and
other government leaders were more committed to the Constitution they promised
to uphold than they are to popular prejudices, flagrant violations like
Greece’s council prayers, national days of prayer and Alabama school caravans
wouldn’t have a prayer of being sustained by any court in the land.

The Outlook

If the Constitution
were being written today with the entire Republican Party devoted to both
religious determinism and anti-scientism, there probably would be no
recognizable First Amendment, no separation provision between the state and
religion. And the result might well be battles between Christian sects and
varied religions and, of course, the godless secularists. This is the norm in
the Middle East and elsewhere in the world.

One U.S. Supreme Court
justice, Antonin Scalia, is an outspoken advocate for a more theocratic America.
He wants U.S. politicians to promote God because "God is the divine
authority behind government, the source of its moral authority.” No, Scalia
never explains how he knows this, or if he believes we are the only country so
favored by the invisible deity.

A recent article cited
a book written by David Domke and Kevin Coe called, “The God Strategy” that
describe the pandering to faith-heads since the Reagan presidency. Whereas
Johnson, Nixon and Carter invoked God only 61, 26 and 25 percent of the time,
respectively, in their talks to the nation, Reagan did so 96 percent of the
time. And Reagan's successors have sustained this cynical tradition: Bush I (91
percent), Clinton (93 percent) and Bush II (95 percent). The figures are not in
for Obama but I’m guessing he’s got a disgraceful 100 percent percentile
rating. (Source: Mugambi Jouet, “Hey Candidates: Atheists Vote, Too—So Stop
Pandering to God! Politicians from Obama to Bush just can't resist the God
strategy," Salon, August 23, 2013.)

Maybe Secularists Should Not Be So Surprised

In his first
inaugural, Obama made these unsupported claims:

“God calls on us to
shape an uncertain destiny.” When did God do that, I wonder? Is destiny not
uncertain for every country, every human being? Besides sounding good to the
uncritical Christian, what the hell was Obama talking about?

“Let it be said [that]
with eyes fixed on the horizon and God’s grace upon us, we carried forth that
great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.”

Are “eyes fixed on the
horizon” the best strategy? What about events and other variables nearby, like
the steady erosion of Constitutional safeguards? Those are not coming from any
horizon. And what’s new or useful about thinking, “God’s grace is any more on
us” than anyone else. Hey, didn’t the Nazis have "Gott mit Uns"
(literally "God with us") on the Wehrmacht and SS belt buckles?

Maybe the Gestapo
focused their eyes on the horizon, too - a quasi-religious horizon that somehow
looked like a 1000-year Reich.

Of course, all Obama
really wanted to suggest, without saying it aloud (as that would be too
brazenly obvious an association of the Deity's support for his election), was
that he was God’s choice for president and God would be part of his
administration. If that were the case, some high level Cabinet shuffling might
be in order, given how things are going to hell in his second term.

What To Do?

The best way to turn
the theocracy tide is for citizens to express their contempt for pandering and
demagogy.

Obama is no more a
favorite politician or servant of God than anyone else in public life and he
probably knows that. Unfortunately, he does not think most Americans know that,
so he acts accordingly with god-talk and support for prayers at government
meetings, tax funds for faith-based charities, disaster aide for religious
buildings and so on.

Dan Barker and Annie
Laurie Gaylor, co-presidents of FFRF, constantly urge politicians who pander
with prayer to “get off your knees and get to work.” Robert Green Ingersoll
once put it this way: “Hands that help are better than lips that pray.”

In another context,
near the end of his famous 1890 address entitled, “God in the Constitution,”
Ingersoll offered these words on the topic:

In 1776 our fathers
endeavored to retire the gods from politics. They declared that 'all
governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.' This
was a contradiction of the then political ideas of the world; it was, as many
believed, an act of pure blasphemy -- a renunciation of the Deity. It was in
fact a declaration of the independence of the earth. It was a notice to all
churches and priests that thereafter mankind would govern and protect
themselves. Politically it tore down every altar and denied the authority of
every 'sacred book, and appealed from the Providence of God to the Providence
of Man. Those who promulgated the Declaration adopted a Constitution for the
great Republic.

I wish Obama would
read that speech. It might bring him to his senses, no matter the political cost,
if any.